#104: Swim in the ocean

Last year for spring break, my Mom, brother, and I went to Florida to visit family. We stayed in a condo right

on the beach. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Everyday, my aunt and I would go a little ways into the water and looks for big shells. We could only find little ones of course. One of the last full days we were there, my aunt and I decided to swim about to the sandbar that was realllllllly far away from the shore. I was freaking out because although I love the ocean, I'm terrified of not being able to see the ocean floor where I'm swimming. However, I told myself I could do it, so armed with a noodle, I paddled my way out to the sand bar. Within a minute or two, I was able to stand up and see the floor just fine. It was such a relief. We thought there would be some big shells out on the sand bar but we only found little ones and some hermit crabs.

As we made our way back to the shore, I stopped and started feeling around for some more shells. Low and behold, I found this guy....

It's HUGE and looks great in my room.

I'm so glad I swam out to the sand bar. I conquered my fear of water! (almost...)

#295: Go to a band's concert

Randomly searching the internet a while back, I stumbled upon the band Mutemath. I had never heard of them before and quickly realized, after listening to a couple of their songs, that I was in love. After downloading all of their albums, I decided that if they ever went on tour, I was going to their concert no matter what.

My best friend Stefan already knew the band and liked their music so when I heard they were playing a show only a half hour from my house, I jumped online and ordered two tickets! It was a very small venue and very crowded. It was in a college city though so there were plently college kids there.

My friend and I stood basically in the very back of the place. I didn't want to be smashed up next to someone, unable to see the band. Here are some pictures and a video from the event:

It was an awesome concert! When they entered, they came from the front doors (where we entered) so the whole band walked right past my friend and I. Of course my camera wasn't ready so I didn't get any pictures. Oh well....it was an amazing night.

#156: Drive with all my windows down, blaring my favorite song

11/13/11

This one was very spur of the moment. I had just gotten out of work at 11:30 P.M. and after a long day, I wanted to unwind on my way home by listening to Cris Cab. It was probably in the mid 60's outside, so it was absolutely beautiful.

Long story short, I cranked up Cris Cab's "All of the Lights" cover to 20 something on my car stereo and drove home. It was exhilarating, having the windows open, wind blowing my hair around, blaring one of my favorite songs. 

It felt so right.

#29: Go to a drive-in movie

7/10/11

This was a particularly interesting adventure. Where I live, there aren't too many drive-in theaters. My friends and I normally go to the local MJR Cinema or the newer Imagine Theater (which has really comfy leather seats), but on one day in July, we decided to go to the drive-in!

The only drive-in that is somewhat close to my house is not in a very good neighborhood. However, my friend Holland said that her sister goes all the time with her kids so I thought, why not. We'll be locked in my car and I can peel out of there if something happens.

We got there and it was still pretty light out. It was a particularly warm night but it wasn't too bad with my car windows open. I parked in the very last row so we would have plenty of room in front of us to see in case a huge truck or van come along and thought it would be cool to park in front of us.

It finally got dark enough for the movie to start and we hooked the gigantic speaker onto the passenger side door. The volume really didn't go up that far though, so periodically I had to turn on my car radio. There were a lot of bugs bugging (ha) us throughout the movie but other than that it wasn't that bad. It was a double-feature movie but we only stayed for the first, Bad Teacher.

It was a fun experience to say the least, even at the beginning, I was a bit apprehensive about it. It was nice to sit comfortably in my car and enjoy a movie with my best friends. I would definitely do it again!

Perfect view!

It was huge!

No, I didn't die...

I could sit here, at tell you why I haven't been blogging my adventures for the past, erm, 10 months, BUT, I won't. Long story short, I sort of forgot I started this and I accidentally stumbled upon it the other day and thought, "Hey, why did I start this and not keep up with it!!?" I have completed a few things on my list though. So, I will try to make up for it by telling you about some of the ones I have completed in the last months, as well as updating when I complete new ones!

So, here we go again. This is a continuation. I promise I won't forget again...

#7: Ride in a Taxi

4/18/2009

Continuing on with the NY trip!
Exiting the doors of LaGuardia airport, the first thing we saw were the bright yellow taxi's.
I had never ridden in a taxi before and I knew at some point during the trip, we would HAVE to take a taxi somewhere, even it was for a around the block trip.
After viewing Ground Zero and walking around it, we decided that we wanted to go to Chinatown and shop for a bit.
We originally were going to walk there, but we realized it would have been a 50 minute walk. We had already been walking around all day and I don't think we would have made it there.
Thankfully, there was one conveniently stopped at the curb right in front of us.
My first taxi ride in New York!

Taxi driver!

Ouchaoui took us right to the middle of Chinatown

We shopped around Chinatown for a while. There were a ton of people trying to sell us watches and purses. I think I said "No thanks" at least 100 times. I ended up buying my brother a jacket and a key chain (obviously).

After Chinatown, we walked to Little Italy. By that time, we were starving so we stopped at one of the many open restaurants. The food was delicious and the restaurant was so cute!

One of the waiters looked like Pedro from "Napoleon Dynamite". I stealthily snapped a picture of him. Creepy, I know.

New York firemen. Enough said.

#60: Stand on top of the Empire State Building

4/16/2009

NY Spring Break trip continued!
Of course when you are in New York, you HAVE to go to the Empire State Building.
I can remember watching "Sleepless in Seattle" with my parents for the first time, Jonah going alone to the top of the building, waiting for Annie...(sigh). Ever since then, I've always wanted to take the trip up myself. In the movie, he just runs on in, goes to the elevator and he is whisked upwards to the top. However, my experience was quite different than that. Sure, the movie was made in 1993 and obviously things have changed since then, but still, I thought we would walk in, pay, and then be whisked upwards just as Jonah had.

Here's how it went.
We finally arrive at the Empire State building. We are walking around the outside of the building, when this man in a flourescent orange jacket approaches us and starts talking about some NY Skyride deal.

   We listen and after he's done pitching us his deal, we decide it would be fun. The guy gets paid, we get our tickets, and inside we go!

Sorry for the blurry picture. Anyways, we get inside, and there's a lot of people and a lot of scaffolding. They must have been repairing stuff, I'm not even sure.

We travel up a escalator and get to a room with a ton of red ropes that allow us to file into line in an orderly way.

After we get through security, we stand in line. Those people in the picture to the left are the last people in line. There was another room bigger than that room with people in line.
We stood in line for probably an hour or two...I can't remember. At the end of the line, we get to jump in front of a backdrop of the Empire State Building and get our picture taken. If we liked it, we could buy it for $20 or something around there. After your picture was taken, it would be displayed on monitors throughout the line and people could see them. It was a great way to be embarrassed if your picture wasn't too great.

So after filing down a hall, we get to this area which will begin as our NY Skyride adventure. There was a gift shop and random things you could take your picture next to like a miniature Statue of Liberty.

We wait a while longer and after we finally made it through (my ticket kept getting rejected!), we went into a dark industrial looking room with monitors hanging from the ceiling. We watched a short movie about the Empire State building, until we finally made our way to the virtual experience. The virtual experience was sitting on this platform that shifted and moved. We were "supposed" to be in a helicopter (Kevin Bacon was our guide), being flown around New York City, enjoying views of some of the most popular buildings and landmarks in the city. It was so much fun. At one point, the "helicopter" went underwater.

After that, we FINALLY get to go to the top! We waited in line for the next elevator...

...and got inside. They told us we could only go to floor 80 and from there, we had to hike it up stairs. I didn't think it would be that bad. However, I was wrong. I think we had to go maybe 4 or 5 floors and I almost died when we got to the top.

However, almost dying was totally worth it. Here are some picture of the time we spent on top.

The weather was perfect, the view was breathtaking. I probably will never experience that again. It was amazing.